Breastfeeding Q&A

Hi ☺

As you may know if you have read my previous breastfeeding posts, I did have a bit of trouble at first feeding EmJ and until I went back into hospital when she was 5 days old I didn't get much help despite asking for it. So I thought I would do a post answering the questions I had so that if anyone else has the same problems as me hopefully this will help.

How do I get my baby to latch on?
Babies don't naturally know how to latch on, it is a learning curve for you and them. I was doing it wrong at first which is why EmJ lost so much weight but the nurse on ward 37 explained to me how to do it. Take your breast in your hand (the hand on the same side as your breast so left hand and left breast etc), hold the baby with your other arm with your hand on the back of baby's head. Tilt the baby so they are facing you, and guide the baby's head to your breast. Position your nipple so it is under baby's nose, and baby should open his/her mouth wide and take the nipple in. Baby's chin and nose should be touching your breast, the brown part of your breast should be mostly in baby's mouth.
This may take a bit of practice but it becomes second nature to both you and baby I promise.

How do I know if baby has latched on?
You will know! For me I can tell when EmJ starts sucking properly as it hurts initially, and I can basically feel her sucking. When the milk starts to flow it doesn't hurt anymore but I can still feel her sucking longer and harder. I don't know how else to explain this but after she didn't feed for the first few days I can tell the difference between how that felt and how it feels now. If baby isn't latched on it won't feel uncomfortable and you probably won't be able to feel baby sucking. When baby is finished feeding and spits the nipple out look at the shape, if the nipple is its normal shape but a bit longer off where the baby has been sucking this is fine,if it is squashed on one side baby hadn't latched on properly and this could make it more painful for you.

How can I tell if baby is feeding?
You will be able to hear baby swallowing, if you can't hear swallowing he/she probably isn't feeding although they do have natural breaks when feeding so watch out for them. If you haven't heard baby swallowing in 5 minutes but they are still sucking it generally means they are sucking for comfort so you should take baby off the breast. If baby hasn't sucked in 5 minutes but is still on the breast, remove the baby from the breast.

How do I unlatch baby if they aren't swallowing or have fallen asleep?
Put your little finger into baby's mouth and push the tongue away from the nipple. This will release the nipple so you can withdraw it from baby's mouth.

How do I know if baby is getting enough milk?
The midwives say to use the guidelines of 6 heavy wet nappies and at least 2 dirty nappies per day show that baby is getting enough milk, but EmJ was producing these and wasn't feeding properly. So my advice is to watch out for weight changes, if it looks like baby is gaining weight they are probably feeding okay but the weight checks that get done by the midwives and health visitors will give an accurate interpretation. Another thing to watch out for is sleepiness,I know that babies sleep for most of the day at first but if you find that you have to keep waking baby up to feed and when they are awake they don't seem like they have much energy I would get them checked. EmJ was very lethargic and had to be woken up to feed when she wasn't feeding properly and she ended up being too tired to even try to latch on so she lost too much weight, so watch out for those signs.

How often will I need to feed baby?
Basically as often as baby wants it. At the minute EmJ is feeding every 3-4 hours during the day and during the night,but between certain hours in the evening (usually starting at about 6pm) she cluster feeds. This is when baby can feed loads in one or two hours and it may seem like she is feeding constantly with no break in between. This is normal and they do it to keep your milk supply coming as the hours when they cluster feed is when the level of hormone needed to produce breastmilk is at its lowest so they cluster feed to stimulate production. Quite clever really. If your baby doesn't wake up every 3 or 4 hours, leave them to sleep if they need it but don't let them go longer than 6 hours without a feed (this is what we were told). When we are out with the pushchair some of the time EmJ will sleep for 6 hours before having a feed and that is fine now so don't worry if your baby occasionally does this.

Does it hurt?
The midwives will say if you're going it right it won't hurt, but it does. Everyone I have spoken to that has breastfed have said it hurts too so it's not just me. It hurts when they first latch on and for a few sucks but after that it feels fine. When EmJ first latches on it actually makes me jump and has brought tears to my eyes once or twice so don't worry if it hurts initially,but do get checked out if it hurts the entire time. 

Can I give baby a dummy?
The advice given is wait until the baby is 4 weeks old as the sucking motion for breastfeeding and sucking a dummy are different so baby might not suck your breast properly if given a dummy before this but I disagree. We gave EmJ a dummy when she was 3 weeks old because she kept looking as if she wanted to feed,or kept sucking her hands and these were both for comfort so when we gave her a dummy it really helped. It also helps bring her wind up and she still feeds properly so using a dummy a bit early didn't affect her

Is it easy to express?
I Have expressed both in the hospital and at home and have used manual and electric pumps and for me it is easy to do. It does feel different to when baby sucks and some people find that it hurts less and is less uncomfortable but for me it still hurts a little initially. If using a manual pump, try to mimic the way baby feeds so pump fast and short until milk starts coming out then start holding each pump for about 3 seconds before releasing as this mimics the let down and then normal feeding.

How do I know how much milk to give if I am expressing?
I don't really know the answer to this other than what I do which seems to work. We checked how much formula she would be getting if we weren't breastfeeding and used that as a guideline and also I empty both boobs every time I express as this would be the amount she would be getting if she fed herself. Luckily for us the amount I express from both boobs was the same as the amount of formula she would be getting so we are confident she is getting enough. She comes off the bottle herself when she is full if there is still some in the bottle and if she is still hungry she will let us know so she never eats too much or too little.

I hope this post has helped and I am sorry it was quite long! If you have any other questions just let me know as I have asked so many questions about breastfeeding that I have probably asked someone what you want to know 😂

Oh and the poos breastfed babies do look different to bottle fed which I hadn't known, and the poos are mustard seed consistency (trust me you will agree with this description once you see one ).
💖xxx

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